You’ve probably seen a couple of low-to-medium reliability sources reporting that Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace have a “deal in principle” for the transfer of Eberechi Eze this morning. Those reports may have jumped the gun a bit, but Alasdair Gold writes this morning in Football.London that the two teams are close… and that a deal is expected soon.
So that’s good!
For the Eze Riders among us, this is good news. Gold reports that “further talks are planned” but that there’s a general sense of optimism. Past reports suggested a deal of about £55m for the England international attacking midfielder, well below his (now expired) release clause of £68m, and that negotiations hit a snag over the payment structure of the deal. In short, Palace appear to be looking for a greater percentage of the fee up front so they can pay for Eze’s replacement, ostensibly Leicester midfielder Bilal El Khannous or Brugge’s Christos Tzolis.
Eze is a talented footballer and nicely slots into that central 10 role left vacant by the injuries to Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison. Spurs are also working on a deal for Manchester City’s Brazilian winger Savinho, though that transfer appears to be a little more fraught these days.
Someone send Alasdair on vacation so we can get this one over the line!
